Uber hires former AG Holder for sexual harassment investigation

Ride-hailing service Uber has hired Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general, to head the company’s investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination by a former female employee.

The hire comes after a blog post by the former employee, Susan Fowler Rigetti, went viral last week. Rigetti wrote that complaints by her and other female employees were mishandled by Uber’s human resources department.

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In the post, she describes how she was sexually harassed on her first official day with the team she was working with. She went to HR with her complaint, but was told it was the man’s first offense and they wouldn’t want to punish him for it. However, amid conversations with other female engineers, she realized this was not the case.

“It became obvious that both HR and management had been lying about this being ‘his first offense’, and it certainly wasn't his last," Rigetti wrote. “The situation was escalated as far up the chain as it could be escalated, and still nothing was done.”

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick tweeted Sunday the behavior mentioned in the post was “abhorrent & against everything we believe in. Anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired.”

Rigetti also described how male engineers had received leather jackets as a company perk, but female engineers had not because there was not enough of them to qualify for a bulk rate. After going to HR, Rigetti said she was told she might be the problem.

Holder, who served as attorney general from 2009 to 2015, will also investigate “diversity and inclusion at Uber more broadly,” according to a memo to employees acquired by the Washington Post.